Edra Soto’s “the place of dwelling,” organized by independent curator Kevin Moore, occupies the atrium of Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art with a presence that feels faintly ecclesiastical. The space induces a kind of upward attention; whatever occupies it must either submit to its vaulted authority or find a way to fold that eccentricity back onto itself. Commissioned for the museum’s 10th-anniversary Atrium Project, a series conceived to give visibility to emerging and mid-career Hispanic and Latinx artists, Soto’s exhibit does precisely that.
Born in Puerto Rico in 1971 and now based in Chicago, Soto has built a practice around interrogating architecture as a social instrument rather than a neutral backdrop. In Chicago she also co-directs The Franklin, an opinionated outdoor space focused on anything worthwhile. Her work in the Kemper exhibition draws from the rejas, breeze blocks and ornamental grilles common across Puerto Rican domestic architecture — patterned screens that permit airflow and visibility while quietly regulating both. Decorative, of course, but also quiet technologies of control.
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